Tibetan / Vajrayana

Vajrayana Buddhism is most closely associated with Tibet and can be characterized by the figure of the siddha, the master whose spiritual realization is so profound that he or she has power over the phenomenal world, and in whom the profundity and vastness of absolute truth is fully and completely manifested. Many of our most well-known authors come from this tradition of Tibetan Buddhism .

[Note: The tags for the various schools are not definitive as many books span multiple traditions, etc. They are meant to use as a starting point for exploring this collection.]

An Explanation of a Tibetan Classic on What Is Most Important

This commentary on Padampa Sangye’s classic verses of advice to Tibetan villagers of Dingri by the renowned and beloved meditation master Khenchen Thrangu offers guidance for people trying to practice the Buddhist path in the midst of a busy life.… Read More

Discovering a Lost Tradition

Banned in Tibet and forgotten in China, the Tibetan tradition of Zen was almost completely lost to us. According to Tibetan histories, Zen teachers were invited to Tibet from China in the eighth century, at the height of the Tibetan… Read More

Profound Instructions on Dzogchen, the Great Perfection

Tibetan Buddhist master Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche gave these teachings on Dzogchen to participants in a three-year retreat in France in the 1980s. He introduces the Buddhist path; provides inspiration by relating details of the lives of two towering figures in… Read More

Sublime Prayers, Praises, and Practices of the Nyingma Masters

Thinley Norbu, a modern Tibetan Buddhist master, translates a collection of wisdom teachings, prayers, and liturgies by five celebrated lineage holders of the Nyingma school, ranging from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries: Longchenpa, Jigme Lingpa, Mipham Rinpoche, Patrul Rinpoche,… Read More

What It Is, What It Isn't, Why It Matters

By now, we’ve all heard someone say, “It must have been his karma” or “She had bad karma.” But what is karma, really? Does karmic theory say that we are helpless victims of our past? Is all karma bad, or… Read More

My Teachers’ Essential Guidance on Dzogchen

The teachings in this book are the distillation of a lifetime’s commitment to Dzogchen realization and practice. Here, Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche teaches from “the top of the mountain down.” That is, he offers to Western readers with varying levels of… Read More

Gesar's Magical Birth, Early Years, and Coronation as King

The epic of Gesar has been the national treasure of Tibet for almost a thousand years. An open canon of tales about a superhuman warrior-king, the epic is still a living oral tradition, included on UNESCO’s Representative List of the… Read More

The Luminous Wisdom of Jigme Phuntsok

What is true happiness? What is the cause of our suffering and dissatisfaction? And how can we live with the kindness and clarity of the Buddha in our own lives? This compact collection of teachings from Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche illuminates… Read More

Foundations of the Buddhist Path

In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a Buddhist yogi-scholar of eastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a lay practitioner for laypeople, it… Read More

Tibetan Tales of Karma

In this series of tales, a prince must capture and bring back to his country a zombie who is endowed with magical powers—but in order to succeed he must keep himself from speaking even one word to the zombie. The… Read More

Wisdom Teachings from the Great Tibetan Masters

Delve into Tibet’s rich religious heritage with this compilation of Buddhist prayers, poems, and teachings from all the various schools. A perfect companion for meditation and contemplation, Jewels of Enlightenment represents over a millennium of wisdom from masters such as… Read More

Transformative Methods for Compassionate Living from a Clinical Psychologist and a Buddhist Nun

A life overflowing with compassion. It sounds wonderful in theory, but how do you do it? This guide provides practical methods for living with this wonderful quality, based on traditional Buddhist teachings and on methods from modern psychology—particularly a technique… Read More

The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sutra and Tantra

“Buddha nature” (tathāgatagarbha) is the innate potential in all living beings to become a fully awakened buddha. This book discusses a wide range of topics connected with the notion of buddha nature as presented in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and includes an… Read More

Buddhist Wisdom on Bringing Happiness to Ourselves and Our World

Love is far more than merely an emotion we feel toward our partners, families, and friends; it is a way of being awake in the world, of living beyond the ego. Moh Hardin offers key insights and practices from the… Read More

Volume One: A Guidebook for the Realization of Coemergence

This guidebook for cultivating the meditative practices of stability and insight—the first major work from the Drukpa Kagyu lineage to become available in English—stands out among works of its kind as one of the clearest and most comprehensive presentations… Read More